My Frustrating Experience with Tanzania's Biggest Telco

For the past two days, I've been trying to do something simple: register a router with a working SIM card at Vodacom Tanzania Plc, the country's biggest telco.

You'd think it would be easy at their main office, right? Nope.

I spent two mornings at their HQ, each time waiting two hours for them to fix the problem. Every day, they said it was fixed.

They even sent me a message saying it was solved! But when I got to Shikana Group's Dar office, I got the same old "invalid SIM card" error.

This experience made me look closer at Vodacom's overall performance. Their recent financial report, shared by Ally Jumanne Mawe / Tanzania Standard (Newspapers) Ltd., shows profits up 19.9% to TZS 53.4 billion ($19.7Mn), driven by M-Pesa and mobile data. Their data traffic grew by 66%, mostly on 4G.

But where's that success reflected in customer service?

Let's break down their "unlimited" data offer:

1. Actually limited to 59.1 gigabytes (GB)

2. Costs TZS 120,000 ($44.3)

3. Slows down after you use up the data

Compare this to Tigo Tanzania Plc:

1. Truly unlimited data for TZS 100,000 ($36.9)

2. TZS 60,000 gives you 72 GB

3. While 140 GB costs TZS 100,000 for average customers

4. Unlimited SIM Card works on your phone too, not just a router

The contrast in customer service is equally clear. When I had issues with my TIGO MiFi router in December 2023, then CEO Kamal Okba personally reached out, connecting me with regional heads like Martin Mavura. He gave me a direct line for support in Dodoma. They told me to send them my location coordinates whenever I encountered sluggish internet! That's responsive service.

At Vodacom's shop, I finally spoke with someone from their TechZone. There were only 3 tech support desks for the entire place.

It made me wonder: Are they understaffed? Undertrained? If it's this bad at HQ, what's happening in their 1,704 rural sites?

This experience has real costs:

1. TZS 203,000 ($74.9) for the service and wasted time

2. Three mornings of lost productivity at Shikana Group

3. Transportation costs and frustration

All for a backup internet solution I probably didn't need.

It seems Vodacom's focus on growing their 19.6 million customer base and expanding 4G coverage (now at 66.1% of the population) might be coming at the expense of quality customer support.

This situation raises important questions for Tanzania's tech sector:

1. How can companies balance growth with customer service?

2. Are we prioritizing technical skills enough in our workforce?

3. How can other players in the market, like TIGO and TTCL-TANZANIA TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANY LIMITED, capitalize on these service gaps?

To Vodacom Tanzania Plc and other tech-driven companies in Tanzania: It's time to invest in your support staff. Train them well. Hire enough of them. Your growth depends on customer satisfaction, not just network expansion.

For consumers: Choose wisely. Your time and peace of mind are valuable. Don't be swayed by flashy ads or big numbers. Look at the whole package - price, service, and support.

We should push for a more connected Tanzania. Let's all ensure that the connection is reliable, affordable, and backed by competent support. That's how we'll truly progress as a digital nation.

As Stephen K. Muriithi would do, I'll end with...

Ahsanteni.

P.S.

If this rant was too long and you didn't read, my recommendations are summarized below.

1. Vodacom

• Improve technical expertise in customer service
• Balance focus between M-Pesa and core telecom services
• Address discrepancies between advertised and actual service limits

2. Customers

• Consider alternative providers (e.g., TIGO for portable internet, TTCL for fiber)
• Be cautious of marketing claims and consider actual service quality
• Should you shift away from the M-Pesa ecosystem and Vodacom's network? (Perpahps not yet; let's give them time.)

3. Telecom industry in Tanzania

• Increase presence of technical staff in customer-facing roles
• Improve transparency in service offerings and limitations
• Create certainty about your ability to resolve technical issues

Excerpt of the associated LinkedIn post (for email recipients not on LinkedIn):

Tanzania's telecom sector is growing fast. The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) reports 76.5 million SIM cards as of June 2024.

Tanzanians used 149 billion megabytes (MB) of internet data. This amount was shared across nearly 39 million internet subscriptions, meaning the average Tanzanian uses around 3,800 MB per month.

According to the Bank of Tanzania, mobile money (momo) transactions hit TZS12.6 trillion ($4.6Bn) monthly in 2023. That was a 35% increase from the previous year's average of 9.5 trillion shillings ($3.5Bn).

But we have a problem. The Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) says we produced 1,634 ICT graduates in 2022 and 1,941 in 2023 (18% year-on-year growth).

Meanwhile, my labour force analysis from 2015–2016 estimated 54,228 ICT job vacancies nationwide, with a potential shortfall of 28,752 professionals. These figures are dated, of course. But they show a real gap that likely persists.

....

THE END